Playing Guitar

This chapter is all about playing Guitar on your iPhone ... what is on the screen, how to hold your iPhone, using one or two hands, playing loud and soft, playing on frets, choosing a song and a sound, and playing along with your iTunes music.

The Parts of the Screen

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You make sound (hopefully musical sound) with Guitar when you are on the main screen. This is the screen that you see after the animation stops when Guitar is started. At the top there are ten buttons that you press to change what the strings play. You use them to "finger" chords or to set up the strings for playing lead lines.

In the middle of the main screen are the six strings. You can either tap a string to make sound, or "strum" across it.

At the bottom of the screen are a set of controls. On the left is the "General Menu" button . Tapping this pops up a menu of possible actions. Access to System settings, Playlist and Backup management, and AirPlay is through this menu.

In the bottom middle of the screen is the name of the current song. If the name is followed by small "tape reel" icon, that indicates that the song has a recorded performance saved with it. (You can read more about "songs" and the "Recorder" in the Song Editing and Recorder chapters.) You can move to the previous song by tapping the left arrow button to the left of the song name, or to the next song by tapping the right arrow button. These previous/next arrows only appear when there is a previous or next song. You can read more about the order of songs in the Playlist chapter.

In the bottom right corner is the "Song Menu" button . Tapping this shows a context-sensitive pop-up menu of song-specific actions. Song Editing, selections for 6 or 12-string guitar, picked or plucked style, and reverb On/OFF, as well as the Recorder are all available from this menu. We'll cover Song Editing and the Recorder in their own chapters.

Reverb

This switch turns a simple reverberation audio effect ON and OFF. Turning reverberation ON gives Guitar a somewhat fuller sound as if you are playing in a medium-sized room with sound-reflective surfaces.

12-String

This switch controls whether you are using the 6-string or 12-string sounds in Guitar. This switch also controls which string pictures are used on the main screen. Tap to toggle between them. Both sets include hand-plucked and picked sounds. Picked or Plucked is selected using the next menu icon.

How to Hold Guitar

What is the right way to hold your iPhone and use your hands and fingers while playing Guitar? There is no "right" way. Some people prefer to hold the iPhone in one hand while tapping and strumming away with fingers on their other hand. Some hold it more like a real guitar and press the buttons with their "fretting" fingers while tapping and strumming with their "pick hand" fingers or thumb. Others just plop it down on a table or their lap and attack it with two hands that way. We suggest trying a few different ways of playing and then going with what best works for you.

One- and Two-Handed Operation

There are some real differences in how you play if your touch the iPhone screen with only one hand or with two. Typically, if you want to touch the screen with just one hand you should turn the "Button Lock" switch on the "Preferences" screen ON. With it ON, whenever you touch a button it stays active (pressed down, with its label highlighted in yellow). You can tap a button and then play the strings with the same finger this way. However, there is no quick way to mute the strings with Button Lock ON. They just ring away and slowly fade out.

If you turn Button Lock OFF instead, you must be holding a button down with a finger in order to hear a string play when it is struck by another finger. Typically you do this using two hands: one controlling the buttons and one playing the strings. When you release a button after strings are played, the strings are muted. If you want to control the sustain of your strings, you need to turn Button Lock OFF and, typically, use two hands to play Guitar.

Chord Dynamics

When playing a Chord or User Chord, a guitar soundboard is pictured along with its sound hole and the six guitar strings. On the right side of this picture are two small volume icons. Towards the top is the "Low Volume" icon, and towards the bottom is the "High Volume" icon. And as you might expect, if you tap or strum the strings of a chord towards their top to play softer and towards their bottom to play louder.

Fretted Play

When using a Scale, Chromatic Scale, or Fret button (more details on them here) you will see a picture of 3 or 5 fret spaces under the strings, and some other "inlay" markings. Typically you play melodies by tapping a string in the fret spaces to sound that string. When you tap a string, any string that doesn't have a finger on it is muted. You don't have to play just one string at a time, though. You can tap two or more strings at once for harmonies, or hold a finger on one string to have it keep sustaining while tapping on other strings.

You can also hold a finger down on a string and move it up and down the frets to slide between notes on a string. To do a "hammer-on," hold a finger on a "low sounding" fret (up toward the buttons), then use another finger to tap the same string on another fret. Release that second finger to get a "pull-off" ... the other fret sounds as you lift the second finger. Or, try holding a finger on a string (making it sound) and then tap another finger (or two) on the same string, but on a lower fret, to make it sound again. This can be useful for rapidly repeating notes, or for playing pitch-bent notes.

Pitch Bends

During fretted play you can also perform pitch bends, but only if you first set the "Pitch Bend" switch on the Settings screen to ON. With that switch set ON, you can move your finger left or right after you touch a fretted string to bend it up in pitch. It is calibrated so that moving your finger to the next string will raise the pitch one semitone, and moving your finger to the side by two strings will raise the pitch two semitones. Two semitones is the maximum pitch bend amount ... moving your finger more to the side will not further increase the pitch.

Pitch bending can be used to musically slide into a note from a semitone or a whole tone below. If you want to play a note and then keep "striking" it while you bend its pitch, first tap the fret on the string, then slide that finger to the side while using another finger to tap the same string above the first finger. This will cause the first note, whose pitch is raised, to play again.

Two notes about pitch bending: Remember that you can only pitch bend on Scales, Chromatic Scales, and Fret buttons, and you can also use this for vibrato by shaking your finger side-to-side on the string.

Capos

Guitar supports of the use of a virtual capo anywhere from fret 1 to fret 7. Capo settings are saved with the song. When you change songs the capo is reset (or cleared) as required by the new song. You can change a song's capo setting when editing the song.

If a capo is set, a small yellow capo icon with a number representing the capo fret position is shown in the middle of the main screen. When playing with a capo, be aware that all other fret numbers (on buttons and string labels) are relative to the capo. Also, note names, if shown on chord string labels, are untransposed. For example, if the string is labeled as a "G" when the capo is set on fret 2, that string will play an "A" (a "G" transposed up two semitones).

Playing Along With Music

With Guitar, you can play along with your iTunes music. The method for doing this is a little different on the iPod touch than on the iPhone, and we'll explain both methods. You can also see a video demonstration of how to play Guitar with your music here.

On an iPhone: First use the "iPod" app to get the song of interest running. Click the "Home" button to send it to the background, and then tap on "Guitar." You can now play along with your music.

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If you have set your iPhone so that double-clicking the Home button brings up your iPod controls, then you can double-click Home to change volume, pause the song, restart it, and more. (Run the Settings program and go to General > Home Button to set the double-clicking preference to "iPod" to enable this features. We strongly recommend it!)

On an iPod touch: First use the "Music" app to get the song of interest running, or at least ready to run. Hit the "Home" button to send the Music app to the background, and then tap on "Guitar" to get it running. To access the Music controls while running Guitar, just double-click the Home button. This brings up the "Music" controls. Tap the "Close" button when you are done with them.